In the light of recent events concerning race. In light of bad leadership leading our glorious country down an all too familiar path. In the light of polarization splitting those of us who care into two hate-filled groups. In the light of an overwhelming apathy that keeps the rest of us from thinking we, as normal Americans, can do anything to change it. In this light I turn to two men in this country's history who started their political careers with nothing but ambition but grew within themselves to discover sympathy and a heartfelt desire to help not only the weak and poor and not only the rich and strong but all Americans and all members of this human race.
One of these men was a staunch supporter of civil rights and a strong believer in diplomacy before military. He was killed in November 1963 in Dallas, Texas. While John F. Kennedy was a great man in his own right, his death caused a re-birth in a greater man. Bobby Kennedy mourned his brother bitterly and struggled to find his own identity as he served as attorney general under Lyndon Johnson. Bobby was tortured inside by his own distrust in Johnson and his public responsibilities to remain Loyal to the man his brother chose.
The Kennedy's led an easy life up on Camelot and never knew the struggles of poverty and civil rights. Bobby was apathetic to the plight of the black community in the sixties. What did he care? He was a privileged white boy from an upper-class family. It all changed when he was charged with the questioning of law enforcement's activities during a labor dispute among grape pickers. Picketers were arrested because the sherriff was sure they were going to commit a crime. Bobby asked, "How can you arrest someone when no crime has been committed?" The sherriff answered, "They were ready to commit a crime." Bobby laughed in a sort of dumbfounded tone and suggested that, "... on your lunch break you should read the constitution of the United States." Later he would witness blacks in the south being beaten by cops and bitten by police dogs while peacefully protesting. He would see black children swept away by the rush of a fire hose spraying water in the streets. Later LBJ would sign into law the Civil Rights Bill that was introduced by JFK on behalf of his brother Bobby.
After winning in the Senate, Bobby was encouraged to run for President. He did so forcing Lyndon Johnson to announce his decision to not seek a second term. The writing was on the wall. Bobby was steam-rolling in his campaign as he went for California. Bobby Kennedy was to be the next President of the United States. He would have changed the world and of this I have no doubt in my mind. No doubt at all. Instead, he was shot along with five other people in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California after winning that states primary. Bobby was the only one to die of his wounds.
Below is a transcript of a speech given by Bobby Kennedy in Indianapolis just two months before his death on April 4th 1968. He was scheduled to stop for a quick campaign rally. Instead he was informed after touching down that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated hours earlier. Here was a white man in a black neighborhood at the height of the race wars. He was strongly urged to get back on the plane and go to the next stop. He refused. Upon arriving at the podium he was made aware that the crowd had no idea that Dr. King had been shot. He felt it his duty to inform them and after shaking off an aides redrafted speech, Robert Francis Kennedy delivered an honest, heart-felt impromptu speech that, while in other parts of the country blacks were rioting, left the crowd somber, calm, and united in their mourning. In this speech he quotes a passage from a book given to him by Jackie Kennedy. She gave him this book to help him cope with his brothers death. Enjoy.
Robert F. Kennedy---April 4th 1968
Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because...
I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.
For those of you who are black - considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.
We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.
But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.
So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, yeah that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love - a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Thank you very much.
